Before answering the question above, we should note that Muhammad -- the role model of the Muslims, the person whose life they regard exemplary -- himselfowned black slaves! We read, for example, in this Sahih Bukhari hadith, "Narrated Anas bin Malik: Allah's Apostle was on a journey and he had a black slave called Anjasha..." (Sahih Bukhari 8:73:182, see also Sahih Bukhari 9:91:368, etc.).

EVEN TODAY, SOME MUSLIMS ARE STILL ENSLAVING AFRICANS.A recent article notes that Slavery in Africa Is Alive, Well and Ignored. We read thatin the Sudan, "Many of the slaves were Christians taken north and forced to convert to Islam or die. Their faces were branded."

First consider this hadith: 'Narrated Anas bin Malik: Allah's Apostle said, "You should listen to and obey your ruler even if he was an Ethiopian (black) slave whose head looks like a raisin.'" (Sahih Bukhari 9:89:256)

Now consider this hadith: "Jabir (Allah be pleased with him) reported: There came a slave who pledged allegiance to Allah's Apostle (may peace be upon him) on migration; he (the Holy Prophet) did not know that he was a slave. Then there came his master and demanded him back, whereupon Allah's Apostle (may peace be upon him) said: 'Sell him to me.' And he bought him for two black slaves, and he did not afterwards take allegiance from anyone until he had asked him whether he was a slave (or a free man)." Sahih Muslim 10:3901

Additional Debate Questions

1. Do Muslims believe that Muhammad made a clever deal in trading two black slaves for a slave not black?2. "The [Blacks are] people who are by their very nature slaves" said the illustrious Muslim polymath, Avicenna. Could Muhammad's attitude toward blacks have affected Avicenna's judgment?3. Not once in the entire Quran does Allah and his Messenger (Muhammad) declare that owning slaves is immoral. Not once! Do you believe that this is because Muhammad himself owned slaves? [Quran 33:50, Bukhari 7:65:346, etc.]4. If Allah and his Messenger had condemned slavery, do you believe that Muslims would have ever enslaved Africans (and Indians, Europeans, etc.)?